Fiji is set to elevate its healthcare sector with the launch of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) 2026–2031 Strategic Plan. The Plan sets out the Government of Fiji’s healthsector reform agenda for the next five-year period, aligned directly to the Fiji National Development Plan (NDP) 2025–2029 and Vision 2050. The Strategic Plan responds to Fiji’s persistent and interlinked health challenges, including an increasingburden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), stagnating maternal and child health outcomes, recurrent communicabledisease outbreaks, climate and disaster vulnerability, workforce volatility and systemic inefficiencies that limit value formoney and quality of care.
The stated vision of the MHMS Strategic Plan is to create a healthy population of Fijians. The official document outlining the Plan states that “a Healthy Population is foundational to social cohesion,economic productivity, resilience to climate and healthshocks and inter-generational wellbeing. This Vision is also fully aligned with Fiji’s NDP which identifies human wellbeing,equity, and inclusive growth as central pillars of sustainabledevelopment.” The mission of the plan is to empower Fijians to achieve optimal health andwellbeing through the delivery of cost-effective,quality, and inclusive health services.
The Plan identifies three Strategic Priority Areas designed to reduce avoidable illness and preventable demand through strengthened, people-centred public health and primary health care (PHC), improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of hospital and specialist services within clear national networks of care, and strengthen health system stewardship to ensure that governance, financing, workforce, infrastructure, regulation, and data systems deliver value for money, equity, and resilience.
Strategic Priority Area 1 focuses on strengthening public health and primary health care (PHC) as the organising principle and operational foundation of Fiji’s health system over the medium term. It aims to enhance early detection, continuity of care, and long-term management of priority health conditions closer to communities while strengthening surveillance, outbreak readiness, risk communication, continuity of essential services during shocks, and the integration of health protection functions into routine service delivery. The priority also mainstreams health security functions, including prevention, preparedness, response coordination, and continuity of services within PHC systems, reinforcing Fiji’s capacity to respond to outbreaks, climate-related shocks, and emerging health threats while advancing universal health coverage.
Strategic Priority Area 2 focuses on enhancing clinical services by strengthening safe, high-quality, efficient, and people-centred hospital and specialist care across all levels of the health system. It seeks to establish clearly defined referral pathways and networks of care, strengthen subdivisional facilities, and enable tertiary hospitals to concentrate on complex and high-acuity cases. Improved patient flow, clinical governance, quality and safety systems, and operational efficiency are expected to deliver better health outcomes, meet public expectations, and reduce unnecessary pressure on hospitals by ensuring that conditions suitable for primary health care are managed at the community level.
Strategic Priority Area 3 focuses on strengthening health system stewardship to improve the effectiveness, sustainability, and equity of service delivery. It aims to enhance public financial management, workforce governance, regulation and legislative reform, procurement and supply chain governance, infrastructure and asset management, development partner coordination, and monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL). The priority also embeds digital health as a core enabling function to support evidence-informed planning, service delivery, supply chain reforms, hospital workflow improvements, surveillance, and transparent reporting through interoperable digital systems that strengthen core government health functions. Fiji Health Minister Health Minister Dr Ratu Atonio Lalabalavu said the plan, developed over about two years, would guide the ministry’s work for the next five years.“It’s not just the numbers, but also enhancing the health workforce quality, the skills, and employment alignment to the system’s need,” the Fiji Health Minister remarked.
